Westmoreland Glass and Specialty Company

Westmoreland began production in 1880 as the Westmoreland Speciality Company. This company produced bottles and containers filled with their own products ( baking powder, mustard etc.). As popularity for Westmoreland glassware continued to rise the company was restructured and became "The Westmoreland Glass Company". Westmoreland now concentrated on making "reproduction" glassware from the 1800s. In the 1920s Westmoreland became one of the largest glass companies in American. Westmoreland is famous for their Depression Era patterns such as English Hobnail, Lotus and Dela Robbia. They produced many reproduction lamps during the Depression Era which are highly collectible today. In the the 1950s with their eye on the future, and with the rising interest in white milk glass, Westmoreland began producing many WMG pieces and patterns. The most popular White Milk Glass pattern was Paneled Grape, followed closely by Old Quilt. They also produced Quilted, English Hobnail, Beaded Fruit, and American Hobnail just to name a few. Westmoreland is famous for the many hand painted designs that they used on their white milk glass items. In the late 1950s the Milk Glass fad ended. To increase sales Westmoreland attempted to produce their glassware with new colors and treatments, but although the company continued to survive, they never recaptured the huge profits they had seen in the last decade. By the 1970s the Westmoreland Company was struggling and in 1980 they began to look for a buyer for the company. In 1981 the company was sold to a Mr. Grossman who attempted to bring Westmoreland back to its former glory. In spite of hard work and many creative attempts to entice new buyers the factory ceased production on Janurary 8, 1984.
The information on the brief history of Westmoreland for this page was gathered from "Westmoreland Glass" by Lorraine Kovar, and from "Colored Glassware of the Depression Era 2" by Hazel Marie Weatherman.